Chet Gresham

Targets and Touches

Week 10 Target Watch: AFC

I have all the targets for each player since Week 5, and then in parentheses I have the average targets per game played for that player. Then below that I have the Red Zone targets and touches for each player. It’s as easy as following me on Twitter.

The pure volume of passes from Joe Flacco allowed some fantasy points, but for the most part Flacco was off target in this one, which hurt the team and the fantasy players. Marlon Brown was easily the star fantasy player with five receptions on nine targets for 54 yards and two touchdowns.

Ray Rice continues to have trouble making plays. In the past he was able to create on his own, no matter the offensive line woes, but he hasn’t been able to do that this season and is officially a fantasy football bust unless you traded for him before Week 5 and then traded him away afterward.

With Jeff Tuel under center the Bills turned to Fred Jackson and C.J. Spiller for offense and they showed up. Spiller totaled 155 yards on 14 touches and Jackson had 99 yards on 17. They couldn’t overcome Tuel’s mistakes, but they should get E.J. Manuel back soon and both running backs look healthy enough for a good stretch run against an easy schedule.

A.J. Green led the NFL in Week 9 with 19 targets. Andre Johnson and Brandon Marshall were a distant second with 13. Five Bengals’ wide receivers saw targets in this one, but four touchdown man Marvin Jones did see more time on the field this week than the last thee games and was second in yardage to Green and third in targets with seven.

Giovani Bernard had a huge game on just 13 looks. He caught all four of his targets for 25 yards and rushed nine times for 79 yards and two touchdowns while Benjarvus Green-Ellis plodded 21 times for 72 yards.

This was the week for two Browns’ receivers not named Jordan Cameron and Josh Gordon to shine. Both Davone Bess and Greg Little have had awful seasons with drops and poor play, but both showed up against the Ravens. Little didn’t have any drops and caught seven of nine targets for 122 yards and Bess had three of four receptions for just 24 yards, but two touchdowns. Jason Campbell did a good job (for his real team) of spreading the ball around and it helped them get a win.

The running game is nowhere at this point and that is displayed by Willis McGahee’s 21 attempts for 31 yards. The offensive line isn’t helping, but neither are McGahee’s old legs.

Demaryius Thomas got back on the target wagon with his highest number since Week 3 and it paid off with seven receptions for 75 yards and a touchdown. Manning wasn’t throwing the ball particularly well downfield so he let his teammates do much of the work after the catch. Wes Welker caught his ninth touchdown pass, which ties his career high, in the eighth game of the season. Welker’s route running coupled with Manning’s less than rocket arm and his still superior decision-making, Welker is in the perfect place.

It’s cliché to say, but Case Keenum is a gunslinger whereas Matt Schaub was a peashooter. According to Pro Football Focus on passes that traveled at least 10 yards in the air Keenum was 14 of 19 for 314 yards and three scores. Most of the yards went to Andre Johnson who caught nine of 13 targets for 229 yards and three touchdowns. That didn’t leave too much for the rest of the team.

Ben Tate played through his four fractured ribs and looked impaired (while any of us would be in traction) as he ran 22 times for 81 yards. If he had been 100% it looked like he could have had a huge game, but alas.

On the other side of the ball it was the T.Y. Hilton show with Reggie Wayne done for the season. After a very slow start Hilton and Andrew Luck started to heat up and Hilton finished with seven receptions on 12 targets for 121 yards and three touchdowns. With Darrius Heyward-Bey leaving the game after a hit to the head, Griff Whalen saw nine targets, but only caught three for 32 yards. Coby Fleener was the second best receiver with three receptions on five targets for 64 yards including a two-point conversion.

I have all the targets for each player since Week 5, and then in parentheses I have the average targets per game played for that player. Then below that I have the Red Zone targets and touches for each player. It’s as easy as following me on Twitter.

The pure volume of passes from Joe Flacco allowed some fantasy points, but for the most part Flacco was off target in this one, which hurt the team and the fantasy players. Marlon Brown was easily the star fantasy player with five receptions on nine targets for 54 yards and two touchdowns.

Ray Rice continues to have trouble making plays. In the past he was able to create on his own, no matter the offensive line woes, but he hasn’t been able to do that this season and is officially a fantasy football bust unless you traded for him before Week 5 and then traded him away afterward.

With Jeff Tuel under center the Bills turned to Fred Jackson and C.J. Spiller for offense and they showed up. Spiller totaled 155 yards on 14 touches and Jackson had 99 yards on 17. They couldn’t overcome Tuel’s mistakes, but they should get E.J. Manuel back soon and both running backs look healthy enough for a good stretch run against an easy schedule.

A.J. Green led the NFL in Week 9 with 19 targets. Andre Johnson and Brandon Marshall were a distant second with 13. Five Bengals’ wide receivers saw targets in this one, but four touchdown man Marvin Jones did see more time on the field this week than the last thee games and was second in yardage to Green and third in targets with seven.

Giovani Bernard had a huge game on just 13 looks. He caught all four of his targets for 25 yards and rushed nine times for 79 yards and two touchdowns while Benjarvus Green-Ellis plodded 21 times for 72 yards.

This was the week for two Browns’ receivers not named Jordan Cameron and Josh Gordon to shine. Both Davone Bess and Greg Little have had awful seasons with drops and poor play, but both showed up against the Ravens. Little didn’t have any drops and caught seven of nine targets for 122 yards and Bess had three of four receptions for just 24 yards, but two touchdowns. Jason Campbell did a good job (for his real team) of spreading the ball around and it helped them get a win.

The running game is nowhere at this point and that is displayed by Willis McGahee’s 21 attempts for 31 yards. The offensive line isn’t helping, but neither are McGahee’s old legs.

Demaryius Thomas got back on the target wagon with his highest number since Week 3 and it paid off with seven receptions for 75 yards and a touchdown. Manning wasn’t throwing the ball particularly well downfield so he let his teammates do much of the work after the catch. Wes Welker caught his ninth touchdown pass, which ties his career high, in the eighth game of the season. Welker’s route running coupled with Manning’s less than rocket arm and his still superior decision-making, Welker is in the perfect place.

It’s cliché to say, but Case Keenum is a gunslinger whereas Matt Schaub was a peashooter. According to Pro Football Focus on passes that traveled at least 10 yards in the air Keenum was 14 of 19 for 314 yards and three scores. Most of the yards went to Andre Johnson who caught nine of 13 targets for 229 yards and three touchdowns. That didn’t leave too much for the rest of the team.

Ben Tate played through his four fractured ribs and looked impaired (while any of us would be in traction) as he ran 22 times for 81 yards. If he had been 100% it looked like he could have had a huge game, but alas.

On the other side of the ball it was the T.Y. Hilton show with Reggie Wayne done for the season. After a very slow start Hilton and Andrew Luck started to heat up and Hilton finished with seven receptions on 12 targets for 121 yards and three touchdowns. With Darrius Heyward-Bey leaving the game after a hit to the head, Griff Whalen saw nine targets, but only caught three for 32 yards. Coby Fleener was the second best receiver with three receptions on five targets for 64 yards including a two-point conversion.

Maurice Jones-Drew saw a ton of work in this one with 27 looks totaling 122 yards, but the Jaguars defense couldn’t stop a dead squirrel from scoring on them. It was another high target day for Cecil Shorts and Justin Blackmon. Shorts fared better than Blackmon, but Mike Brown was the only receiver to get a touchdown. This was a tough matchup, so what they did get wasn’t too shabby, but us garbage-time fans were a little disappointed.

Alex Smith only completed one pass that traveled over 10 yards in the air against the Bills, a 20 yarder to Anthony Fasano. UDFA rookie Case Keenum completed 14 for 314 yards and three touchdowns! They are hiding Smith and letting their defense win games, but they won’t be facing Jeff Tuel each week.

Smith completed 19-of-29 passes for 124 yards for no touchdowns or interceptions. The only touchdowns Kansas City had were defensive.

Jamaal Charles now has had back-to-back games without a touchdown after having one or more in each of his previous games. Kansas City is becoming so predictable that even one of the best running backs in the league is going to have some trouble unfortunately.

Mike Wallace had one of his better games as a Dolphin even though he didn’t put up huge fantasy numbers. He caught six of eight targets for 82 yards and also drew a critical pass interference call.

The defense did most of the work with a 94-yard pick-six and a game winning safety, but it was good to see Lamar Miller continue to improve his play with 20 touches for 129 yards including four targets, which he caught. Daniel Thomas continued to be less than stellar with 13 touches for 42 yards.

Aaron Dobson leads the team in targets over the last five games and had his biggest game as a rookie this week as he caught five of nine targets for 130 yards and two touchdowns. He of course wasn’t the only player to have a big game. Rob Gronkowski was unstoppable, as he caught nine of 10 targets for 143 yards and a touchdown. The other big receiving game came from Danny Amendola who was only targeted four times, but caught each one and finished with 122 yards and a touchdown. He is not Julian Edelman.

Stevan Ridley managed to stay out of the doghouse after fumbling and rushed 26 times for 115 yards and two touchdowns. There were plenty of fantasy points for the taking in this one. The return of a full speed Rob Gronkowski showed it’s full effect this week and it’s a good sign for the Patriots going forward.

There wasn’t much passing from Geno and The Jets in this one. He completed just eight passes on 15 attempts for 115 yards. It was easily his fewest completions, attempts and yards on the season, but they still beat the Saints through defense and the run game.

Chris Ivory played very well against his old team running for 139 yards and a touchdown on 18 carries. They weren’t going to let Smith beat them with mistakes and it worked.

It’s hard to get much from this game for the Raiders since they were blown out of the bay. Terrelle Pryor and company were in garbage-time before they had time to blink.

With the Eagles playing back they didn’t have much of a problem throwing underneath and that led to ten targets for Rashad Jennings which he caught seven of while Darren McFadden was on the sidelines with an injured hamstring.

The Steelers defense didn’t show up so Ben Roethlisberger and the offense had to chuck it to keep up. As far as fantasy goes that’s a recipe for success and Roethlisberger did hit 400 yards and four touchdowns. Unfortunately for many fantasy players Jerricho Cotchery horded the touchdowns, catching three. Antonio Brown continues to play well and caught the other touchdown even though he was benched late in the game for running the wrong route, which led to an interception. But Brown does lead the league in receptions, so I wouldn’t worry about that impacting his snaps and targets. Le’Veon Bell had a goofy game with 139 total yards on 20 touches, but didn’t get into the end zone.

Emmanuel Sanders and Jerricho Cotchery had red zone looks against the Patriots, but Cotchery came out on top with the touchdowns. Now all three of Brown, Sanders and Cotchery are tied with nine red zone targets, while Brown is the clear winner for the season in total targets.

Keenan Allen has ascended as one of the top receivers in the league and Philip Rivers’ top target. He had a horrible drop in the fourth quarter, but came back and made some great plays and Rivers had no qualms about going to him. He ended up catching eight passes on 11 targets for 128 yards and a touchdown.

Danny Woodhead is now on pace for 98 receptions after catching nine of 12 targets for 77 yards. The record for receptions by a running back is 101 by Larry Centers, so that will be something to watch as the season progresses.

Ryan Mathews was the odd man out in this one. He started the game with a nice 11-yard gain and finished with a paltry seven attempts for 34 yards. This was a prime matchup for Mathews against Washington’s weak run defense so his lack of touches is telling especially coming off back-to-back 20+ rushing attempts and 100+ yard games.

It only took eight games, but Chris Johnson finally got a rushing touchdown, two actually, and rushed for over 100 yards, 150 actually. It was a huge game and harkens back to yesteryear and the days of CJ2K Yore.

Jake Locker looks like maybe he was rushed back a little too quickly because he does not look anything like the player we saw emerging before his hip injury. He completed just 13-of-22 passes for 185 yards and two interceptions.

Johnson had gone four games without seeing a look inside the red zone and he had four this week. Shonn Greene had three and scored a short touchdown, so there hasn’t been a change of the goal line back.